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Although we are blessed in Australia with a truly great outdoors, when other factors come into play such as bad weather or lack of means to drive to a beach or similar, children have a wonderful way of being quiet and calm one moment and the next being as animated as a Tasmanian Devil (think the Disney cartoon kind). They also appear to take to, and welcome routine and sometimes practicality.

Something hit home to me today more than anything in the last month or so. A podcast of course (Ricky Varandas from The Ripple Effect) talking about different mindsets; his, his partner’s and others. The turmoil and conflict inside him, that then he reflects externally and can be on the dangerous curb of judgement. Specifically when he booked someone for his podcast that is a hero and his wife said “Can you take out the trash?”

Like this:

Being between jobs has afforded me an abundance of our most valuable resource. Time.

That time has been spent working on my charity, cleaning the house, “minimalising” my possessions (after listening to too many “The Minimalists” podcasts) but also some less noble pursuits, more loosely determined as leisure.

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It’s been a while since our last break but with my wife’s hectic season coming up at work we headed off to Byron Bay for an extended weekend. An early flight out of Sydney and we were touching down in Ballina by 9am. I love tiny Australian regional airports.

GERRY: The Story of GSM Gerald “George” Stone is the biography of Gerald Stone, one of the most revered and respected, but equally anonymous military figures in the British Military in the 20th Century.

The current Sydney Eye Hospital sits next to Parliament House on Macquarie Street but it’s former site used to call Woolloomooloo home. The V-shaped pale building oozes character and still stands proudly despite the modern luxury developments that have sprouted around it.

In it’s debut year 3000 patients presented at the Casualty Department of the ophthalmic hospital and by 1981 it hit 75,000. Before it became a hospital it had multiple uses such as a coffee palace, hotel and allegedly as a brothel.

God knows how I “fell in to recruitment”. For an introvert that went bright red and barely squeaked when meeting people I somehow accepted a job (career?) that demanded exactly that; an awful lot of squeaking.

Well, to be truthful, I do know why; I had zero confidence, was desperately unhappy and I told myself I was not good enough to be a writer. It does not make sense at all, I know. On the upside the office was near my home and I had a knack of being a “nice guy” and that got me the job.

New York. The physical differences to Sydney are clear. It’s harsh. Solid. Cold. Unforgiving. No city has had more written about it. You can churn out a million adjectives. It oozes frantic energy. In a contrary universe I find calm in the chaos. It’s exactly that atmosphere that inspires. Sydney’s kick-back vibe helps soothe my 24/7 mind. New York’s noise and activity has the same effect. With a twist. It ignites the internal ideas factory. For writing and for business. It causes frantic and spontaneous note taking on my iPhone. In a taxi. A restaurant. Walking in Central Park. On the Subway. New York author, screenwriter and playwright Delia Ephron recalls some perfectly apt wisdom from her mother: “All life is copy….take notes”. This copy comes from the sometimes outrageous, raw and real food, drink, people, places and entertainment that are the mechanics of the machine. I have written about these topics in a series of blogs that can be viewed here. But I saved my favourite till last – PONY or the People Of New York. Continue reading →

Below is a brief list of places to visit once you have become a regular. They are a good starting point and I can personally vouch for them.

There are thousands more curious sights that are rarely publicised to the masses but if you Google “curious sights New York” or “alternative New York sights” or similar you will find a treasure trove of options.

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Now before I start my scribble I want to kill off any suggestions or mischievous claims that this is in any way intended to be derogatory. It’s a shame I have to say that but I need to be crystal clear.

Sydney taxi drivers. These three words are enough to provoke a barrage of almost spasmodic reactions from us humble consumers.